Guild Wars 2

Maybe a stupid question, but I’m wondering if Tactical Formations are viable and applicable to WvW. Any guilds, commanders out there command a troop to do a formation?

I prefer the “flying V” formation it was practically unstoppable in The Mighty Ducks 1 and 2. Just make sure you got a Julie “The Cat” Gaffney watching your backdoor though.

Not really, since the collition detection is rather poor in GW2. Projectiles go through bunker builds and hit the ranged players and so on. Area denial and barriers are more important than “formations”.

i believe the “Zerg” tactical formation is quite popular !

I haven’t tried formations yet. While I assume it would be possible there are several factors that one must take into account before attempting such maneuvers.

• Voice Coms: Everyone in a formation is going to have to be on some sort of voice coms or there is no viability in attempting it
• Runspeed: It’s near impossible to get everyone running at the same speed since there are so many different spells at each classes’ hand for increasing it. If there was a ‘Follow’ function that allowed players to follow someone else at one set speed, this could make formations more viable.
• Skills & Abilities: Formations are only effective if you can coordinate certain classes activating certain skills all at the same time. For example front line Guardians with shields activating ‘Shield of Absorption’ first to push back the enemy advance followed up with mid-formation Guardians activating ‘Line of Warding’ to make sure they DON’T advance with Elementalists activating ‘Flame Wall’ for the rest of the formation to fire projectiles through at the enemy. This is just one example as there are hundreds of combinations.
• Discipline: Getting any number of players into a formation requires a certain amount of discipline. Fighting the urge to hunt down individuals who peel off from the main group can be difficult at times. Advancing as a formation steadily and with conviction can be even more difficult.

All in all I think that getting a formation to actually be effective can be a difficult process. While I do think it can be done, the current state of combat and WvW makes it extremely difficult. The only two current viable formations that seem to work well right now and ARE effective to certain degrees are ‘Stacking’ and ‘Portal Bombs’. Both unique to GW2 WvW.

Last night, we were pushing back and forth between a supply camp and a keep. We were doing great holding the camp, but somehow we got scattered. I noticed that they encircled us slowly and pinched us in. Which then goes into… Maneuver Warfare

Siliconhobbit.4361:

The only two current viable formations that seem to work well right now and ARE effective to certain degrees are ‘Stacking’ and ‘Portal Bombs’. Both unique to GW2 WvW.

Man, I would like to see a playbook of GW2 WvW Formations and Maneuvers… like a Sun-Tzu Art of War type of thing.